Imagine a beautiful water world full of vibrant coral reefs and unique creatures. Now fill that world with crumpled Coke cans, cigarette butts, and inky-black sludge oozing out of underwater flora. Sounds gross, right? That’s the world of Another Crab’s Treasure, the newest indie Soulslike about to hit digital shelves. But despite all the pollution and trash, developer Aggro Crab has created a stunning world you won’t ever want to leave.
In Another Crab’s Treasure, you play as a lone little hermit crab, Kril, who has his shell yoinked by a (literal) loan shark. You set off into the deep blue ocean, but what starts as a quest to reunite with your home quickly becomes something much, much bigger. All you’ll have at the beginning of your journey is a rusty fork. Eventually, though, you’ll find a variety of shells that’ll have your back as you explore a gorgeous water world full of wonder.
While Another Crab’s Treasure doesn’t push the status quo of the Soulslike genre, what it hides beneath its shell is an utterly gorgeous world worth exploring, one with charm, creative level designs, and a captivating central gameplay mechanic that even the most hardened Dark Souls veteran can appreciate.
A true Soulslike in the Sands Between
There are a total of 69 shells to collect in the game, and each offers different defense stats and weights—exactly what you’d expect from armor in Soulslikes. But what sets this title apart is that shells grant different abilities to complement your melee attack. Some shells offer buffs, like increased attack speed or momentary invincibility, while others send out cones of damaging bubbles or bursts of smoke to distract enemies.
Although you can only carry one shell at a time, you can quickly swap between them, allowing you to waltz into a boss’s lair and change up your attack style mid-fight with nearby shells. You can also bring almost any shell you can find to a fight as well, thanks to the game’s “insurance” system, which lets you play with the playstyle that fits you best.
Even if you’re not a Soulslike fan, Another Crab’s Treasure still wants you to have fun and find your ideal playstyle through a variety of difficulty sliders and accessibility options to adjust the game’s intensity. From added shell durability, to full-on giving Kril a handgun that one-shots difficult foes (yes, that’s a real option in the settings menu), you can play the game can be played at your own pace and on your own terms. This accessibility usually isn’t always a standard feature in Soulslikes, a genre known for its cruel and often unrelenting difficulty, but it’s a welcome one nonetheless.
The rest of the game stays true to its genre. You’ll gain access to a skill tree and can alter your stats with various equippable items. There’s Moon Snail Shells (or bonfires, for all you Dark Souls fans out there), a currency called Microplastics used to upgrade stats but is lost upon death, and unforgiving bosses twisted with corruption.
Not all smooth sailing
Most game releases these days run into at least a few bugs, and Another Crab’s Treasure fails to escape this fate. Between the audio randomly cutting out at times, Kril occasionally getting stuck inside terrain, and certain controls not translating well from controller to mouse and keyboard, there are a few kinks that still need to be ironed out of this Soulslike.
You likely won’t come across any game-breaking issues, but I encountered a couple of boss fights where the boss glitched out and remained either entirely still, letting me smack away uncontested, or completely invincible, rendering my attacks utterly useless. Dying reset the encounter, and I eventually overcame my foes, but wasting valuable time or losing your hard-earned Microplastics to something outside your control never feels good.
You’ll encounter a plethora of bosses throughout your journey across the ocean—some optional, others required to progress the story. As someone who likes Soulslikes but doesn’t love them, I played on medium difficulty, and most bosses felt fair, but some were too easy or “cheesable” compared to others. A few fights took me hours, while others needed only a few attempts. Some of the optional bosses repeat the same mechanics with only slight variations, making them easier to take on.
Although this volatility can be a bit frustrating, it’s not my biggest complaint about Another Crab’s Treasure’s boss fights. The challenge keeps the boss battles engaging, but most boss mechanics revolve around dodging strikes or one-shot grabs; it would’ve been interesting to see shell abilities incorporated more into fights, or if there were more opportunities to use your grapple to maneuver around the arena.
Darling, it’s better under the sea
By far the best part of the game is its humor in the details. If you’re idle for too long, Kril starts playing hackysack with a Heartkelp, and when you pick up the controller again, he gets startled and drops it. You’ll then need to go and retrieve the Heartkelp if you want to avoid losing a precious healing charge—a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things, but an example of the charming way the game demands your attention.
If there’s one thing that’ll grab your attention with the full intensity of a crab claw, though, it’s the environmental design. The world, full of vibrant colors and cunning designs, is utterly gorgeous. Playing through the game, you can tell the design team had fun. You’ll find popsicle sticks with dark jokes, bridges made of receipts from the CDV “deez nuts” Pharmacy, satirical and witty plays-on-words in the dialogue: exploring this saltwater world pays off, even if there’s no hidden loot on the other ledge—just a laugh.
Most of the time, though, there is loot on the other ledge, and maybe even a hidden route to a secret boss. You’ll find different costumes to dress Kril in, items to aid you on your journey, and more behind every corner of the ocean floor, encouraging you to explore for hours—even long after you’ve defeated that level’s main boss.
Is crab on the menu?
Does Another Crab’s Treasure run—err, swim—with the likes of Elden Ring or Bloodborne? No, and I’m not just saying that because hardened Soulslike veterans would whip out their own rusty (pitch)forks if I did. Between the bugs and the balancing, this underwater adventure game has its flaws, but it also has a ton of heart. Both the world you’re dunked into and the core gameplay mechanic of collecting and battling with new shells are engrossing. And for roughly $30, it’s a great purchase for anyone, both longtime fans of the genre and those looking to get their feet wet with Soulslikes for the first time.
